Pop Culture Fail

For the last week all of the cousins, with help from four ESL teachers from Canada and the States, have been teaching English to the new students.  Between all the lesson planning, teaching, meetings and other responsibilities there has been very little room to breathe. However, the teaching has been pretty fun and a good way to get to know some of the kids outside your core family group.

One of the most challenging parts of teaching this week was to get the girls to talk and participate. In general, the Rwandan girls that have arrived for the first time at the Village are soft spoken, demure and shy.  When you ask them their name you can barely hear them reply.  This is also true of some of the boys, but they are generally a bit more outspoken and willing to speak in  English. It is difficult as a teacher to gage if they understand or not if there is no feedback.  Gradually over the week, my co-teacher and I managed to coax them little by little out of their shells so that we could actually have some decent conversations, games, presentations and exercises.

This is also true of the girls in my family. As they have been getting to know their sisters, they turn into chatty, giggly teenage girls.  Which is great, because I have actually been able to have a some fun conversations with them.  All the students are curious, but the questions I get the most are: 'Do you have parents?' and 'Do you have children? or How many children do you have?'.

The first is one that you would not typically get in a North American context.  It is more like 'Are your parents still together, What are there names, What do they do?'  something like that.  In Rwanda, and especially with these kids- who are mostly orphans, having parents (that are still alive, or that they know) is a rareity rather than the norm.  It's startling.  I expected when I came to Africa to feel some sense of having been born into extraordinary riches- merely by the fact that I come from Canada, a generally peaceful country with good education and health care.  I did not expect to feel rich or lucky for the fact that I have parents that have cared for me and taught me all my life.  Although, if I really examine the idea of having parents, it is probably one of the best things you can have in your life- loving parents.  When I say I have two parents, they kids look at me like I have won the lottery.

The second question is also not super typical in a western context to someone in their late twenties.  Part of it is that Canada does not have a very high birth rate compared to Rwanda, and also many Canadian women now have their first child from late twenties to mid thirties.   It also seems funny because there is no question of having or not having children in their minds- just how many.  Mostly my answer is: "I have no children, because otherwise I could not be in Rwanda at the Village with you for a year."

My favourite question so far has been (with a very serious face) 'Melissa, Do vampires exist?'  I had a whole bunch of very interesting question that night about conspiracy of the pyramid sign on the American dollar, mummies and Rambo movies... as if they had been saving all the questions they had ever wanted to ask a westerner.  Amazing!


The other questions I've been asked recently have been 'Melissa, tell us about Drake, Rhiannon, Shakira, Justin Bieber etc etc'.  Now for those of you who know me- know that I am more of an eccentric type of music listener than the mainstream.  (with exceptions of course!)  Some of you might recall a story about a time when I met Swollen Members (a somewhat popular rap/rock band in Canada) and told them I had no idea who they were- and didn't listen to commercial radio.  (harsh, I know).

So I told my girls the little that I knew about Justin Bieber and the likes, but it wasn't very much.  I said, I know about Michael Jackson and Bob Marley, and their response was 'they are both dead'.  i.e  Melissa, you are old- and listen to old music, get with the program.  (On a side note, I did play some Bob Marley in English class to learn some lyrics and some of the boys LOVED it!)

That's all for now- I've got to go study up on pop culture before my girls grill me again :)